Day 304 - 22 Nov 96 - Page 09
1 168, page 35. So, I mean, it is worth noting that between
2 June 1989 and June 1992, when there was a minimum wage rate
3 for over 21s, the rate of pay went up in that period from
4 £2.38 to £3, i.e. a raise of 62 pence in three years. But
5 if you take the period from June 1992 to June 1995, where
6 there was not a minimum wage set by the Wages Council, the
7 wages went up from £3 an hour to £3.05 an hour, which is
8 only a five pence an hour increase in three years.
9
10 So, I think it is pretty clear from that that without the
11 protection of a minimum wage, McDonald's basically just
12 exploit their workforce for, you know, as little as they
13 can get away with. Obviously, they have to pay a certain
14 amount or people would not work for them at all.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
17
18 MS. STEEL: The last point I wanted to refer to was in relation
19 to trade unions, and we consider that we have proved the
20 trade unions section of the case, that McDonald's are
21 anti-trade union and that they take active steps to prevent
22 unionisation every time anyone tries to actually unionise,
23 get organised in the stores. But I presume McDonald's are
24 still going to argue that this is not the case, that we
25 have not proved that. So I just wanted to say something
26 about the Plaintiffs' reputation on this point.
27
28 Now, we know that McDonald's recommends John Love's book,
29 "Behind the Arches" to the public as something to read if
30 they want to learn about the company. They recommend it as
31 good reading material to get a good picture of the
32 Company. This book clearly portrays McDonald's not just as
33 anti-union, but as absolutely desperate to stamp out any
34 attempt by workers to organise, and if you look at page 397
35 of the book, which is actually in pink volume 13B -- it was
36 confirmed by Mr. Beavers -- it refers to John Cook standing
37 toe to toe as labour relations chief with local labour
38 unions who were trying to organise in McDonald's stores on
39 some 400 separate occasions.
40
41 Underneath it says, "In practice, Cook's job was to keep
42 the unions out. Unions are inimical to what we stand for
43 and how we operate." Lower down it says, "Cook translated
44 that passion into a powerful union resistance movement. In
45 the end, in short, Cook gave no grounds for unions, and
46 then at the end, "As a result, McDonald's stores today are
47 strictly non-union shops." It is absolutely clear from all
48 of that, anybody reading that would get the impression that
49 McDonald's are anti-union and that they are actively trying
50 to prevent unionisation or any type of organisation by
51 workers, wherever it occurs, on every single occasion.
52
53 It does refer to 400 separate occasions, so it is not just
54 sort of, you know, the odd event. It is clearly, in
55 reality, the image that McDonald's want their workers to
56 have so that they do not try and organise, but it is also
57 clearly an image which they are actually quite happy that
58 the public should have. Otherwise, why would they be
59 recommending this book?
60
